If you didnt see the headlines in the National Enquirer or see
me on Jerry Springer, let me update you...Dr. Gizmo Abducted By
Aliens at Deli...yes, it is true. One minute I am sitting at Katz
Deli glad to be in a bug free environment, speculating on the sound of
one 300B clapping, snorting down a lean corned beef sandwich and a kosher
pickle and then all of a sudden I am lying on a table inside a UFO and
some very silvery people with very very bad breath are inserting a long
needle in my belly button .which didnt embarrass me because two
days previous I used a Q-tip to get out a six month supply of waxy mosquito
encrusted belly button fluff that had accumulated from being in the rain
forest. This was not the first time I have been abducted, and I knew that
the closer the XH-1 got to launch time the more these depressed and quite
nerdy aliens would harass me by inserting more and more needles into my
belly button. This was not a painful procedure because for some unexplainable
reason the aliens were playing Lawrence Welk music very loud which was
more painful.

NOTE: I want to assure you that 99.99% of the accounts you are hearing
about alien encounters are completely falsetto fabrications. Dont
bother watching the Sci-Fi Channel...totally bogus. Yes, it is true
that aliens are all over the place, and yes, they are very smart,
but they are also very boring, depressed, have bad breathe and are
desperate for fun and some good old fashioned American barbecue.

When I woke in my home I was wearing a silver foil bandage on my belly
button. Quite frankly, until I started to wake up with silver foil bandages
on my belly button I didnt believe in UFOs and aliens. On the other
hand my audio bro Mark Conese saw one when he was thirteen years
old, and at the 98 CES we met a handyman that swore UFOs were landing
in his backyard every night....and almost every cab driver in Las Vegas
knew someone who knew someone who had contact with a UFO!

I tried not to reveal my more frequent experiences with aliens to my
friends, but my behavior started to become very unstable ( I started to
listen to transistor amps), I had strange visions and started to get phone
calls from the aliens directing me to do very specific tasks.....including
contacting other alien audiomaniacs that were living on earth and disguised
as earthlings.

SAFETY WARNING: What I am about to reveal to you will be so shocking
that you may loose control of your bodily functions so I suggest you
stop reading now, go to your bathroom and sit on the potty while you
read the rest of this article, which is how you should read all of my
articles. Why do magazines, especially the girlie, audio, fishing and
hot- rod types, seem more entertaining when we read them on the potty?
Did I ever tell you dudes about my new concept in a home entertainment
center just for men that includes a big screen TV, four loudspeakers,
single-ended triodes, a reclining potty, beer cooler, cigar humidor,
pizza oven and a remote control flusher?

Clearly there is a clear relationship between The Triode Guilds
SETMI project and higher forms of audio intelligence traveling to America
because ( are you sitting on the potty?) higher forms of intelligence
love the taste of Americas music because...... they eat it; they
live off of it. Thats right. Right now aliens are scoffing down
Americas music energy and it is a powerful form of nourishment.
Stop and think for one minute.....how would you feel if you looked like
a creepy alien and had to eat bowls of warm solder flux and shredded aluminum
foil three times a day and nothing else...no pizza, no beer, no dip, no
snacks? And how would you feel if the only music you had sounded like
German grasshoppers playing wind chimes....very dynamic, low in distortion,
but boooring.

Have you ever considered that though ETs may be very smart, they (again)
are also very, very unattractive, boring, have bad breath, and are so
desperate for fun they will travel zillions of light years just to
get a good dose of American funk? Wake up America. Why hasnt just
one scientist or savant asked the most basic questions...Do aliens
know how to party? Are they any fun? Does it bother them that they
are so ugly? Why didnt it occur to just one sci-fi savant that maybe
the UFOs are hanging around our backyards because they would love to taste
some American barbecue? Clearly these creepy big hearted ETs dont
want to hurt us; they want to use us, and because they are of higher intelligence
they know how important it is to strengthen those from whom they expect
nourishment....but aliens are social nerds, insecure, have never had a
great date, and dont know how to party, and are very depressed.

A while ago it was revealed to me that the reason I was being abducted
more frequently was so I could be tested to determine if I had "the
right stuff" for an important mission that I would assigned....no
volunteering necessary. Because I got an "DH/R" on my test (the
highest mark you can get from an extraterrestrial is "DH/R"
which stands for : Dude Human/Righteous), I was chosen to be a servant
for this higher form of intelligence. It was obvious to me that the aliens,
in their desperation to have fun, wanted to control and exploit me and
the Triode Guild. What was their grand scheme? I know this is hard for
you to swallow, but all that aliens want from humans is for us to teach
them how to party and how to barbecue!

As you know The Triode Guild Party is the Party of the Party by the People
for the People, and we believe that a government that cant party
cant represent the will of the America people. In addition we believe
that every American man has an inalienable right to a great triode sound
system, a righteous motorcycle, a great hot rod, fine hand made cigars,
a great old worn out leather jacket, and all the barbecue and watermelon
he can eat. That is my platform...vote for me, and make America a better
place, by making American men more beaudacious.

Are you still sitting on your potty having a good time? Does this article
seem much more interesting now? Now it is time to light up a fine cigar.
Now taste the Pralines and Cream ice cream with hot baked chocolate chip
cookies. Is this your first time for sitting on the pottty while reading
the rantings of a thermionic techno-shaman in Positive Feedback Magazine
while smoking a fine cigar and eating ice cream and cookies, while speculating
on the question...What is the sound of one 300B clapping? Get what I mean
about the power of the alien mind virus?

I now am introducing you to two very significant alien audiomaniacs.
David Berning and Robert Grunberg are both aliens from the Nth Dimension
of Music HyperSpace. You know David, and soon you will know Robert.

ROBERT GRUNBERG: ALIEN SPEAKER DRIVER DESIGNER

Until now none of you knew Robert Grunberg, because he "accidentally"
came to earth almost forty years ago when a UFO crashed in the desert
of Australia. A newly married couple, Dr. Bill and Ethel Grunberg, were
on an archaeological dig, saw the crash and ran over and noticed a baby
in a diaper and rescued it from the smoldering wreck. They never told
anyone about this weird occurrence and raised Robert as if he were their
own human son.

Soon Robert was showing some remarkable qualities..before we has three
he was pretending that he was a Priest of the Temple of Monkey Coffins
and was making toy monkey coffins...before he was eight he started to
design amazing sounding loudspeakers using phase coherent Ninja infinite
slope double helix Mutant inverted time aligned Turtle cheese fondue crossovers.
By the time he was twelve he was known as SuperSpeaker by his friends,
had a pet dog named Woofer, a pet parakeet named Tweeter, and was able
to leap over Infinity IRSs in a single bound. By the time he was fifteen
Robert could dig into the center of the earth and come back with molted
iron which he would mold into magnets in his bare hands. Sixteen and bored
with the Australia marsupial audiomaniac scene, Robert swam to America
and was shocked. He could not understand the compressed Americanspeaker language spoken. It was so different than the speaker language
spoken on the planet of his birth..ALNICONIX where all speakers are high
impedance, and high efficiency. According to Robert, the real place of
his birth, ALNICONIX was named after its most abundant "Kudzu"
type plant, the ALNICONA, from which fresh wild alnico magnets can be
harvested in your backyard. I also discovered these aliens can make beer
from fermenting Alnicona, and it has the taste of one 300B clapping.

Life has not been easy for Robert on earth, and he missed the dynamic
yet refined sound of his home planet, but he could not return home. He
was trapped on earth and he became very attached to an earthling women
because her spirit was very much like alnico magnets, so he resigned himself
to the task of making earth more like ALNICONIX. Since that time he has
been working in his lab, trying to create for earthlings, speakers that
sound like they come from another galaxy.

One day last year while I too was on the potty reading the Japanese magazine,
Stereo Sound, I saw an ad for Sunlight Engineering, which was in Japanese,
but there was also a phone number in California. Why did I stop and pay
attention to this ad? I was just doing my job as Guildmeister of the Triode
Guild, which is to hunt in exotic places for wild audio art on the potty.
I now know that the aliens, who abducted me, were responsible for the
strange trance that this Japanese ad induced. I called the number and
spoke to Joe Uyama, who spoke almost no English, but I think I heard him
say that I should call him in about six months. Because of deep involvement
with my Tannoys I didnt follow up.

Then the aliens, once again, contacted me in my dreams to make me focus:
A naked Cameron Diaz wearing nothing but a Mickey Mouse Mouseketeer hat
and smoking a Churchill cigar was holding a very large dual concentric
driver while pointing to the hole in the middle. This dream, which was
planted in my mind by the aliens, meant that if I wanted a dreamy smoke
I should once again call Sunlight Engineering.

As you know from my insistent ranting that I believe that the Alex Garner
designed, Tannoy dual concentric Alcomax driver is one of the rare works
of audio arts. I have cajoled all of you into considering the unique beauty
of "classic" dual concentric alnico drivers, and many have called
me "The Concentric Crusader". Surf this fantasy with me: We
walk into a shop called Concentric and Sons, which caters to the
exclusive custom made dual concentric audiomaniac trade. All of its products
are custom made, like a Holland and Holland shotgun. A distinguished gentlemen
looking like Robert Grunberg, wearing a white linen coat with very large
bat-like ears, attends to our needs. He offers us, like your typical American
audio dealer, a fine cigar and vintage French brandy as we discuss our
musical taste. We are measured, we write out a check for $9K, and we are
told to come back in six months when our custom-made drivers will be ready.
Get the trip? My fellow dudes do you know the feeling when you have just
encountered a gizmo of immense coolosity...like a supercharged V-10 Dodge
Viper motor? Or when your tailor makes a custom-made suit for you? Or
you commission your design for a 48 wooden sailboat. That is the
Sunlight trip. Sunlight Engineerings 308 driver, designed by Grunberg,
has redefined the concresence of driver coolosity...even with its flaws.
In a flawless world there is no art....which is why the aliens come to
earth.

The Sunlight Engineering 308 exists because Robert Grunberg has pushed
the boundary of the "classic American speakers arts" into the
next galactic space/time continuum. At $9,000 per pair without cabinets
these drivers exist to satisfy the artistic cravings of some very intense
triodemaniacs......these speakers were created specifically for the ultra-triodmaniacs
of Japan and Korea, and that means horns.

This driver is to speakers what single ended triodes are to amplifiers...they
both make no sense and they both make the most sublime, and unexplainable
magic. What could be more ridiculous than an eighteen inch paper cone
for midrange accuracy? So let me address their obvious flaws so we can
concentrate on what they do that no other driver I have ever encountered
can do. This driver is designed for a horn cabinet, which means ultra-huge...almost
twice the size of the Westminster Royals, and quite frankly I dont
have the courage, time or money to build them, though you can order custom
made horn cabinets, from my favorite Japanese horn salon, UTOPIA INSTRUMENT.
I put them into sealed enclosures so I will miss the magic low frequency
wave front that only horns can create. The woofer crosses over to the
midrange/tweeter horn at 500 cycles , and because of the design of the
concentric midrange/tweeter driver forget the top octave. I am therefor
giving up the bottom octave and the upper most harmonics, so that King
Tone can manifest His harmonic wholeosity in the mid section with a dynamism
that is totally unique.

When it comes to critical evaluation I listen to master tapes (Mark Conese
and I make with his custom tweaked Ampex tube tape recorder, modified
RCA ribbon makes with silver Alpha-Core microphone cable)...of Marco,
a great jazz pianist playing the in house concert grand Steinway. This
is the only way to discover the true nature of loudspeakers because we
have eliminated all of the distortion and compression of vinyl and digital.
The output of the Ampex goes directly into the input of the tube crossover
which then feeds the amplifiers.

I thought I couldnt get any higher than my Tannoy Alcomax high,
and then I experienced these monsters of audio audacity and I realized
once again that a spiritual mature man is a polygamist. It takes two people
to move around this driver, and you are paying for 30 pounds of solid
gold magnets. What you will experience here is a degree of aliveness and
harmonic whole-osity that I never knew existed on earth..and I was right,
because this is the first time such a driver has appeared. This is the
driver that has completely redefined the dual concentric art. This is
young David, standing up against Tannoy Goliath. But of course these drivers
are not something you buy in a store, and according to Grunberg, he can
only make twenty pairs a year. Fear not because Grunberg is making a,
soon to be available, ten inch and fifteen version of this driver that
just may be the answer to unlocking your triode demons....all 100db efficient,
16 ohm, alnico, dual concentric! Only you know how long I have
dreamed this dream and now it is coming true, and remember without
alnico you cant experience King Tone!

Let me make this clear about Robert; he doesnt design loudspeakers,
he designs the raw driver, i.e. the frame, the magnet structure...he is
into the subatomicosity of it all. There are only a couple of earthlings
that have reached this level of mastery. It is a total delight to listen
to Robert rant and rave about magnetic materials, and other alien driver
gibberish.

I believe these drivers may be the ultimate space ship for exploring
the Nth dimension of Music HyperSpace; the existential shadows of single-ended
triodes. These are simple two way speakers with absolutely the right impedance.
They are ultra high efficiency....108 db. They have what appears to be
unlimited dynamics. They have the right magnets, and they can demonstrate
the benefits of ultra simple circuits because of their dual concentric
harmonic whole-osity that is impossible to achieve in multi-driver designs.
Of course these are also the perfect driver for a 2A3, 45, 50 or 10Y circuit,
and soon I will report on how this driver works with these flea powered
tubes.

I dont know why there is such heavy hedonistic harmonic alchemy
between directly heated triodes and Alnico. Once you experience it you
just cant go back to the cheap ferrite spread because of its relative
coarseness. It is like going from a 300B back to a 6550. This driver is
a very extreme example of this alchemy...it borders on the type of harmonic
hallucinogenic we get when participating in the ancient Apache peyote
ceremonies while waking barefoot over hot fire coals in our living room
to Prince.

Only this type of ultra-high efficiency driver gives
us the ability of always staying in the sweet juice area of the triode;
the first few milliwatts, and have the ability to explode into musical
plasmas that capture our souls. That is why I, as Guildmeister, bestowed
upon Robert Grunbergs art a name that accurately describes what
these drivers do, that all others are incapable of doing...only these
can be called HARMONIC PLASMA TRANSDUCERS™.
Think of this driver as a jet engine that is spewing forth a gigantic
plasma of harmonic energy, and it is hitting you right in the chest, arms,
legs..your entire body gets caught up in its plasma of hot harmonics.
It is like Hulk Hogan harmonics wrestling you to the ground..

What is true for me is also true for all of you. None of you have a clue
as to the nascent drama of the 300B until you have heard it with this
type of speaker. Even Charles Whitener of Western Electric does not yet
know (in the biblical sense) the dark funky soul of the 300B. Yes, I grant
you that mono plate 2A3s and 45s are more subtle than 300Bs, but I need
that real physical juice of music which means authentic musical dynamics,
and the 300B is the perfect mean between the 45 subtlety and the 845 swagger....
with these drivers. One watt with this driver will play more dynamically
than 800 watts with an 82 db driver.....wake up America...you have
it allwrong....but as your President we will work it out..partying
with the party of the party.

And did you notice how many OTL amplifiers were listed in this years
Stereophile Class A Amplifier category? Yikes, and Gadzooks,.... because
all of us know that "normal" OTL amplifier absolutely must
be used with at least 16ohm speakers for optimum performance and
reliability ....in spite of what OTL amplifier designers claim. Those
who love OTL amplifiers (God bless you all) havent got a clue until
you listen to your amplifiers with speakers like these, which is why the
old Quad ESL with its 30 ohm impedance at low frequency is such a great
OTL speaker.

SUMMARY PART ONE: I am abducted by aliens while eating a lean corn beef
sandwich and channeled to an alien Australian driver designer,
who has taken Dual Concentric Classicism to a higher level. Grunberg is
connected to a Japanese audiomaniac who has moved to America to manufacture
his designs for export to Japan and Korea, and aliens continue to virus
Dr. Gizmos mind so they can take control of his Triode Guild bid
for the Presidency because they are desperate to party and learn how to
barbecue.

But because you cant separate the hot dog from the roll, I now
must introduce you to the other piece of the answer; to the other alien,
and it is David Berning. The combination of Robert Grunbergs Harmonic
Plasma Transducer, and Davids new ZOTL 300B single-ended amplifier
is the convergence of two alien forms of genius and what comes out of
the audio oven tastes better than you know what.....even without the ice
cream.

DAVID BERNINGS ZOTL

CAVEAT EMPTOR: I was forced by my alien abductors to begin a "patron"
relationship with David. Because I believe Davids new ZOTL patented
alien thermionic technology will create the concresence of thermionic
musical beauty for legions who would have never imagined it possible,
or affordable. My goal is to convince a high end audio company to license
the ZOTL technology from David so that YOU can buy a ....100 watt per
channel ZOTL amplifier, with regulated power supplies, direct coupled,
no bias and balance adjustments, which is NOT sensitive to speaker load
for under $1000. Or what about a 100 watt per channel one tube
(833) directly heated triode singled ended OTL with regulated power supplies
which is NOT sensitive to impedance amplifier for $6,000 per pair? If
I can help make that happen then I deserve to be your President.

At the Philadelphia Audio Society 1997 annul triode fest I heard something
I never heard before. David, for only five minutes, played an 811 single-ended
triode ZOTL™(ZOTL = OTL at the Nth Dimension) amplifier that had
regulated power supplies and weighed ten pounds for two channels. Yikes!
How much less can you get than four tubes (three input/one output) directly
coupled with no audio output transformer? I was so impressed by this experience
I convinced David to let me help him exploit this breakthrough...which
means...I am very biased, as I should be, because David has shredded
the perimeter of the audio arts in a major way by taking BE VERY
SIMPLE, BE VERY STIFF to its ultimate simplicity and stiffness, and that
matters a great deal to the Triode Guild. I am deeply humbled by his achievement,
while most are intimidated by it.

David ZOTL circuit is such advanced technical wizardry that I will not
bother to discuss it here, because it is beyond me. Davids patent
is the best place to get the technical explanation of his achievement.
Many from the conventional OTL school are claiming that Davids ZOTL
is not a real OTL amplifier because it uses an ultra high frequency (250K)
power conversion transformer to solve the impedance matching of directly
heated triode to speaker impedance. I can understand how upset these "normal"
OTLolgists are and why they claim that Davids ZOTL has no right
to claim that it is a "normal" OTL...and in one sense they are
right, but they are also very wrong, because ZOTL takes the core primal
Futterman OTL impulse to "get the iron of the audio range" to
the highest level of development. So lets not oscillate over the
details, this is not a "normal" OTL circuit, it is a ZOTL circuit,
and Davids patented circuit, for the first time, solves the impedance
problems endemic to all conventional OTL circuits; lack of stability at
low impedances: all OTL amplifiers are very weak in the bass region. The
ZOTL circuit is the first OTL circuit that doesnt go bonkers into
low impedance loads, and this is the only tube amplifier on the face of
earth, since the Futterman OTL-1, that doesnt have an output transformer
and has regulated power supplies, and ZOTL is far superior in every
regard! And this is a major big deal..THIS IS A DIRECTLY HEATED TRIODE
OTL... it lets us hear the tone of directly heated triodes in an
OTL circuit. This is unquestionably one of themajor
breakthrough in the thermionic arts. Those of you who are using OTLs
that have video compactron/regulator triodes in output stages are in for
a big thrill when you hear the totally superior tonal qualities of directly
heated triodes. But rather than rave about this circuit here, just check
out Dick Olsher review in March 98 FI Magazine where he puts Davids
amazing technical wizardry in perspective.

The amplifier I am writing about now is a different amplifier than the
push/pull amplifier (which uses video compactron tubes) Dick reviewed.
This amplifier exists because I begged David to make the worlds
first 300B single-ended ZOTL amplifier so that I could claim direct involvement
in this historic achievement. (Ralph Karstin doesnt like to admit
it, but I also cajoled him into making his push/pull 300B OTL) Never underestimate
the value of my narcissism. We now have a new answer to the question...What
is the sound of one 300B clapping", and this amplifier is an
impossible dream come true...it is the convergence of the best aesthetics
of OTL and single-ended directly heated triodes in a single circuit....
if you can tolerate only 5 watts.

David is the only other that yours truly who demands regulated power
supplies in tube amplifiers, so it was a major thrill to experience this
amplifier making love to the Grunberg art. Have you ever heard King Tone
dancing? Take away all of the audio output transformer anomolies that
are inherent in all single ended amplifiers, take away every last drop
of AC filament hum, add the benefits of regulated power supplies, take
away all of the impediments to linear frequency response at the extremes,
and for the first time you experience a profound new truth about 300Bs
that you can not experience when an audio transformer and unregulated
power supply are choking off its harmonic whole-osity and its capacity
to be explosive with life....you call it transient response, I call it
triode bliss. Here for the first time the harmonic genius of the 300B
is completely naked, its transformer shroud lifted, laying bare its red
hot harmonic soul.

MARK MY WORDS: I have seen the future and it is ultra high frequency
switching power supplies with regulators for tube amplifier who aspire
to the thermionic concresence of coolosity. David started this trend almost
two decades ago and now others will soon follow. Remember my 100% batting
average.

Because so few have experienced Davids new ZOTL, and even fewer
the single-ended version, it is easy to understand the angst in the Rec.
Audio chat groups. There is much whining and complaining about this
circuit because it is so threatening to makers of conventional transformer
coupled amplifiers and conventional OTL amplifiers, but let me assure
you that like The Harmonic Plasma Transducer, David single-ended 300B
ZOTL is, in the truest sense a breakthrough in the most serious end of
the audio arts. This circuit is not an incremental step, but a major leap
forward in thermionics, is totally unexpected, understood by few, including
me, is totally "untweakable", and the best reason in the world
why others would want to assassinate David. Who would have imagined
listening to a directly heated triode without an audio transformer?
Who would have imagined a single-ended directly heated output transformerless
amplifier....and the elimination of OTLs impedance sensitivity?

Let me be clear that neither of these products are designed for "sodbuster"
audiophiles. This is ultra serious stuff for those who have been witness
to the thermionic fire; to whose who have danced across the burning coals
in their living room, and are living on the edge. This is the place you
arrive at when know the sound of one 300B clapping. If you have any doubt
about Davids alien genius just consider this...in a ten pound
box David is able to create what it took the savants of New York Audio
Labs to accomplish in a 250 pound form of the Futterman OTL-1. After listening
to ZOTL, when you pick up the chassis, which weighs less than you preamp,
your brain goes.....Duh! How is this extreme level of anti-gravity performance
possible my fellow earthlings?

Let me address this issue of OTL aesthetics which is never discussed
because so few have the vast experience (kissing myself in the mirror)
that I have with so many different OTL circuits. OTL amplifiers because
of their impedance sensitivity can be very right or all wrong.
OTL amplifiers, contrary to what Bruce Rozenblitt asserts, can and should
not be used with "normal" speakers because OTLs are not
"normal" amplifiers. They will create a completely unique, amazing
clear and wide sound stage but the dynamics are often non-linear because
of their extremeimpedance sensitivity. The higher the impedance
of the speaker the less prone OTL amplifiers are to this dynamic discontinuity.
Since the 1970s ( sorry for the repetition) I have ranted that....you
havent got a clue about just how good OTL circuits are until you
hear them exactly the right way with regulated power supplies
and high impedance speakers. Most OTL designers dont
use regulated power supplies because they dont know how to design
them properly. Regulated power supplies, to a great extent, heals this
OTL dynamic disproportionality problem. The ZOTL circuit, because it does
not suffer with this impedance sensitivity and because it has regulated
power supplies for the first time reveals the nascent and unexploited
capability of tube amplifiers that have no audio output transformer.
Bernings ZOTL is able to reveal the subatomic harmonic coupled with
dynamic righteousness. I have never heard this combination before in any
OTL amplifier, and Dick Olsher agreed. But I must constantly remind
you that the single-ended ZOTL amplifier requires the finest high efficiency
speaker to appreciate its capability....we are dealing with only five
watts...who said LESS Is MORE?

Those of us who are on the single-ended path know this truth to be self-evident:
once you hear the clarity and wholeosity of these circuits, even the best
of the best push/pull amplifiers sounds harmonically awkward. We are prepared
to accept the flabosity of the bass, and the anemic upper octave for single-ended
midrange scroopulosity...it is the price we gladly pay for King Tone.
Single-ended maniacs are hunting for that hallucinogenic harmonic transparency,
and for this hunter, ZOTL, in this single-ended format, has taken me to
a very exotic harmonic happy hunting ground...one that I never knew existed,
because I now experience all the virtues of single-ended circuits without
their limitations, and that is my definition of triode heaven....and it
is driving 108db efficient, 16 ohm Alnico dual concentric. Long Live King
Tone.

The point being, dont forget that there is an alchemy between the
Grunberg alnico transducer and the Berning 300B ZOTL, which is the alchemy
of alnico and directly heated triodes.....you need one to fully fathom
the other. For those who grock, as I do, having as many different
answers as possible to the 300B question, this circuit is a must have
for your collection because it reveals a 300B truth that no other transformer
coupled circuit can express. For those who live by...Be Very Simple, Be
Very Stiff...this is as about as simple and as stiff as you can get.

Let me mention this to triode savants who wrestle with the noise dilemma
of directly heated triodes...the signal to noise ratio of ZOTL is minus
120 db which must be an all time low for any directly heated triodes,
and this is probably why there is such an errie quality to its harmonics...all
the power supply hash is gone because of Davids totally cosmic high
radio frequency switching power supplies, which are nothing like the cheap
switching power supplies used in cheap transistor amplifiers. This amplifier
can not work with all 300Bs because of variation in filament wire
inductance, so check with David for the rules of tube swapping. David
uses Western Electric 300Bs. Again this amplifier can not be tweaked.

What is the down side of this amplifier, and this should not be overlooked?
It is too transparent. It reveals too much of the subatomic harmonic,
and if you input and associated equipment is not of the highest quality
you are simply not ready for ZOTL. Listening to our Ampex tube tape recorder
masters is the most amazing thrill I have ever had, but when we connect
the CD players we are hearing more digital discombobularity not less.
Because ZOTL does less filtering than any amplifier I have ever experienced
it will upset your systems equilibrium, and may force you to rethink
all of your inputs including cabling. I want to suggest to you that this
is the ultimate amplifier for judging digital equipment. This amplifier
must be used with silver cables.

But what is the messianic nature of ZOTL and why are so many thermionic
artisans getting unstable over it? How would you like to listen to a....
45,50, 2A3, 845 or 805 or 833 in a ZOTL single-ended circuit? What do
these tubes sound like without an audio output transformer? What would
a Western Electric 212 ZOTL sound like? ZOTL solves the fundamental artistic
limitation of high powered single-ended circuits...because you can use
any of these tubes without that big chunk of iron. Get what I mean about
the potential of the ZOTL circuit? An insight may be found in the most
amazing experience I had listening to the Svetlana 811 in the ZOTL single-ended
form...which shook me to the foundations of my thermionic being.

None of Davids amplifiers are cheap in the $6K range. He builds
them one at a time in his home. They are extremely reliable, and all I
can say is....a new door has opened...are you ready to go through?

SUMMARY PART TWO: David Berning is an alien thermionic audio artist and
is proving to us earthlings that the impossible dream is possible...the
unique aesthetics of a directly heated single-ended triodes and an OTL
amplifier can be merged into one circuit with regulated power supplies,
no speaker impedance weirdness, and only weigh ten pounds.....proving
that higher forms of thermionic intelligence are ready to make contact
with earthlings.

CONCLUSION: Very gifted alien audio artisans like Grunberg and Berning
are inventing new tools for us to explore the classic questions of the
audio arts....like,.. What is the sound of one 300B clapping?

But on a more profound level these alien audio wizards confirm the eternal
cycle in the arts...just as we thought we had reached a concresence of
musical beauty, the next door is shoved open and we behold a glory that
we never knew existed before, and it is in a form that we never imagined,
and yet it looks very familiar....the timeless paradox of the audio arts
shinning in you....and you can never be too rich, too thin, and use too
many different types of 300 B amplifiers....with high impedance, high
efficiency Alnico dual concentric drivers. The thermionic future is much
more than you imagined because it is much less than you imagined.